The relationship between body weight, length of stay, medical expenses, and type of illness in the hospital population

Due to the character of the original source materials and the nature of batch digitization, quality control issues may be present in this document. Please report any quality issues you encounter to digital@library.tamu.edu, referencing the URI of the item.Includes bibliographical references: p. 57-60.Issued also on microfiche from Lange Micrographics.The objective of this study was to determine if percent optimal body weight (%OBW) at the time of hospital admission influences hospital length of stay (LOS), medical expenses, and types of diagnoses. All hospital admissions were evaluated from January 16 to January 30, 1995 at Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Temple, TX. Patients who were under the age of 18 and either pregnant or lactating were excluded. In total, there were 526 patients: 259 men and 267 women. Percent optimal body weight, length of stay, total medical expenses, daily medical expenses, and types of diagnoses were compared for each patient. Statistical analyses included Pearson's product moment correlations, Chi-Square, One-Way Analysis of Variance, Wilcoxan scores, Student's t-tests, and Duncan's multiple range test. Results included the following: 48 patients (9. 1 %) in the underweight category, 254 (48.3%) in the normal to overweight category, and 224 (42.6%) in the obese category. Patients' ethnic backgrounds consisted of 453 (86.1%) White, 46 (8.7%) Black, 25 (4.8%) Hispanic, and 2 (0.4%) Asian. Mean length of stay, total medical expenses, and number of diagnoses were not significantly different by %OBW. However, there was a significant difference (P < 0.05) between the weight category for daily expenses, with the normal weight (NW) category having higher daily expenses than the obese weight (OW) category or the underweight (UW) category. There was also a significantly higher number of patients with a diagnosis of: cancer (P < 0.05) in the NW category, infection (P < 0.01) in the NW category, endocrinology (P < 0.05) in the OW category, hypertension (P < 0.00 1) in the OW category, and diabetes (P < 0.00 1) in the OW category. The number of patients diagnosed with diabetes, endocrinological problems, and hypertension increased with the patients' weight. However, in the NW category, daily medical expenses were significantly higher (P < 0.05) for persons with diabetes. Total medical expenses and LOS were significantly higher (P < 0.05) for neurology patients. In addition, when data are broken down by age and gender other significant relationships between %OBW, LOS, and medical expenses appear. Results of this study demonstrated that although obesity may predispose one to certain chronic conditions, and increase the likelihood of hospitalization, obesity itself does not appear to increase length of stay or medical expenses for the hospitalized population